Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Ron Burke

Just before I left for E3 I got a package with the game Shadowgrounds in it.  I really didn’t know what to expect as I had not heard anything about the title prior to installing it on my PC.  A quick check on EB revealed a $29.99 price point, which is usually a dead giveaway that the title will be less than stellar.  I pushed through the install and braced for impact. 

Shadowgrounds clearly takes a page from isometric titles like Crusader, and subject inspiration from movies like Aliens and, to a lesser extent, Red Planet.  The gist is that people have built colonies on other planets, and naturally things have gone astray leaving the lone hero and a few friends to fend for themselves.  It is certainly not an original concept, so I was a little more disheartened at this point.  The install had finished so I dove into the game.

To my shock and amazement, there is actually a decent survival-horror title buried in this title!  Essentially, you play a mechanic named Tyler who sincerely hates his job.  When the lights go out, Tyler sets out to find out why.  In the course of this objective, he discovers that they are far from alone on this planet.  Several areas of the surface station are infested with bugs the size of lawn chairs, and as always, the military is nowhere to be found.  Armed with a flashlight and some decent military hardware, you run and gun your way through an alien infestation in a bid to save your own skin, as well as stopping the little beasties from reaching Earth. Before you have a Gauntlet flashback, let me say that the folks at Frozenbyte have made things a little more difficult than that by limiting your ammo, tossing in a few rescue missions, making you repair parts of the station, and populating the levels with very large bosses at the end.  I checked my initial reactions to the title and proceeded with the review.

If you’ve seen the advertisements for this title, there are claims that it “Out-Dooms Doom 3”.  This is a pretty bold statement given how fantastic Doom’s graphic engine is.  The game is played from an isometric 3D view.  Using a fantastic lighting engine, each environment in the game is set up to feel like you can see almost well enough to defend yourself, but not quite.  It is in this way that the game actually does brush past the previously mentioned title.  Using darkness effectively to cast ominous shadows, and to obscure enemies, rather than simply plunging you into total darkness, makes for a great environmental effect.  Just like Undying or Resident Evil, this is a game that you play with the lights turned out. 

Ultimately, the characters are a lot like that girl in the office across the street.  She looks great when you look at her from your cube, but the second you get close you find that there is a little bit of roughness when all the details are filled in.  The character models are decent enough, but they simply look better at a distance.  This hurts most during cutscenes, but it is a minor concern.  The graphic engine performed beautifully with all of the details maxed, and never suffered slowdown during my time with the game.

Voice acting is becoming expensive.  With actors like Eliza Dushku, Patrick Stewart, and Sean Bean doing voice work now, the options for voice actors is certainly expanding…if you care to pay the price.  Shadowgrounds went with no-name actors for their voice work and it turns out to be a mixed result. 

The main character, Tyler, is a sly witted guy with a chip on his shoulder about his situation.  Throughout the game he seems more annoyed with the delays of rescuing yet another idiot civilian that has gotten themselves in trouble than with the danger of his situation.  It works well for the character development and makes the character likable.  On the other hand, the rest of the supporting cast phones in their voice work.  It isn’t Resident Evil “master of unlocking” bad, but it could have been better. 

The environmental effects and music are far better than the voice work in this title.  The music track is a mix of rock and moody instrumental songs that serve to enhance the overall feel of the level.  Similarly, the creatures are all well done.  They screech and skitter around on the cold metal flooring sending shivers up your spine.  This is a game that takes advantage of a good surround sound system.

I’m going to split the control section into two parts for the purposes of this review, one half for single player and one half for multiplayer.  If this sounds extremely odd, it is because it is.  Rather than allowing players to play the game via LAN, gamers are restricted to having one player use the keyboard and mouse, and having the second, third, and fourth co-op player using gamepads.  This means that the single player controls are smooth and responsive, and the multiplayer controls are cumbersome and dependent on having gamepads laying about.  Since my 3dfx Hammerhead controller doesn't work anymore, and my Xbox 360 controllers are all wireless, I had to head out to the store and buy a corded 360 controller just to get this game's multiplayer to work.  If there is a corner that was cut in the development of this title, the network code (or lack thereof) is it.  A solid netcode could have helped extend the gameplay into the online world and tossed a few points on top of the review score.

Here we are at the area that usually destroys a game – the gameplay section.  As I mentioned before, there is a great game somewhere inside Shadowgrounds, but it is very difficult to dig it out at times.  Let me explain.

The first thing that you’ll notice is that, rather than getting save files and a single life to accomplish your mission, you are given five lives and respawn points.  If you have ever made a Hell run in Diablo and found that your corpse was unrecoverable, you can easily tell me why this is a horrible idea.  If you die, you are ported back to what seems like a random location.  Just like Diablo, you do not have to re-kill the creatures that you already encountered, but also like Diablo, the creatures that used your skull for an ashtray before are waiting right where you left them, eager for a repeat performance.  If you are stomped by the Coke machine-sized bugs five times in a row, you get the distinct pleasure of repeating the entire level. Yay. Since there are quite a few boss battles in this game, it would be nice to get a save-anywhere function, even if the five lives system somehow stayed in place. 

As I mentioned previously, the game isn’t just a Gauntlet clone.  You’ll be performing basic objectives such as fixing a communication dish, or rescuing somebody who has gotten themselves trapped.  To accomplish these objectives you are given a wide array of weapons.  There are a total of 10 weapons throughout the game that can be modded via random drop upgrade kits.  The weapon enhancements range from plasma rounds and larger clips to enhanced firing rates and more.  In addition, you can use an alt-fire mode on most of your weapons that allows you to trade additional damage for a few extra rounds of ammo.   Knowing what weapon to use on what enemy makes all the difference in the world in this game.  Since there is a limited amount of ammo in the game, you’ll want to conserve your bullets for those tough boss battles. 

The gameplay in Shadowgrounds starts off frantic and harried, like a good survival horror game should.  Unfortunately, as you work your way through the latter parts of the game, and you’ve amassed a cache of weapons with heavy upgrades, you’ll find that the game does indeed become a bit repetitive as you simply grind your enemies into the dirt.  It is as if they tried to build on their initial concept, but lost the balance aspect along the way.  It doesn’t ruin the title, but it does remove the primary challenge element. 

It only took me two weekends to put Shadowgrounds through its paces.  The overall game begins to erode a bit at the end, and while finishing the game does unlock another difficulty rating, it doesn’t have the same pull as a Smash TV or Diablo type title to play through it a second time.  The multiplayer’s reliance on gamepads rather than network code is mind boggling and further hurts the replay of the title.  On the other hand, Shadowgrounds does carry a $29.99 price tag, and for that price, it isn’t a bad game.  With the lessons that Frozenbyte will learn from such a fantastic environmental execution as this, I eagerly await their next title. There have been a lot of games throughout the last two decades that have pulled off great run-and-gun gameplay.  The old school title Alien Syndrome comes to mind, as does Crusader: No Remorse.  If you are looking for an updated version of either of those two titles, you can’t go wrong with Shadowgrounds. 

Gaming Trend Score

80

1. Graphics: 85
2. Audio: 85
3. Controls: 75
4. Gameplay: 80
5. Value/Replay: 75
6. OVERALL:80